Chocolate, sleep, and general Marauder mischief
by Time-Space-And-Stories
Summary: "Sorry for waking you up." "Don't worry about it, Moony," Sirius grinned. "That's why I'm here." "To get woken up by me every couple of hours and get no sleep," Remus remarked, brow raised. "No, you idiot," Sirius said, poking him. "To look after you."


**Hiya! Here's a oneshot featuring the Marauders, specifically Moony (Remus Lupin) and Padfoot (Sirius Black). It depends on your interpretation as to whether this is Wolfstar or not.  
I love these guys so much; I'll probably make plenty more short stories featuring these four.**

 **Enjoy :D**

* * *

Remus struggled through the common room, keeping his head bowed and pulling his cloak tighter around him. He winced at every movement; despite years of having to deal with his 'furry problem' (as James liked to call it), the aches and pains of bruises and cuts littering his skin every month always left him inwardly curling up and closing off the world entirely. Of course, the situation was much improved at Hogwarts, where Madam Pomfrey could do her best at tending to his wounds. He was grateful, ever so much so; but he hated having to lie in bed in that same hospital wing for days on end, groaning at the white hot pain that sliced through him as he was fixed up, again and again and again.

He stumbled up the stairs to his dormitory, gingerly brushing his fingers against the partially healed cut across the bridge of his nose. He hoped his friends wouldn't notice, but doubted he would be so lucky: when he wasn't in the hospital wing being patched up by Madam Pomfrey, he was then sentenced to a couple of days thereafter in which he'd be question about how he was by his friends. Remus knew that they meant well, but he also knew (as well as they did) that his replies of "I'm fine" were always a lie.

Remus put his cool palm to his forehead; his head was fit to burst, and all he wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep. His hand scrabbled clumsily for the door to his dormitory, and he stepped inside. To his surprise, a torrent of noise didn't bowl him over. He glanced around, to see only one other occupant in the room.

Sirius was sprawled across the entirety of the four poster bed, staring above him and humming tunelessly. At the creak of the door, he lifted his head, his mop of dark hair falling across his face. He grinned at the side of his friend. "Remus!"

Remus managed a feeble wave, and went to collapse onto his bed. It took him several moments to frown.

"Sirius? Why are you in my bed?"

The boy sat up, tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, and shrugged. "Your bed is closer to the window. And it's comfier."

"Well, I'd liked to use it now, so," Remus gestured at Sirius to shove off.

Sirius looked as though he'd prepared an argument against this, but his gaze got distracted before he could make a start. He pushed off from the bed and strode over towards Remus, who gave him a quizzical look. Sirius reached out a hand, and held Remus' chin as he observed the cuts scattered across his face. "You look a right mess, Moony," Sirius frowned, his voice soft.

"Thanks," Remus muttered; he tugged Sirius' hand away and scooted around him.

"No – wait – Moony," Sirius exclaimed, spinning on his heel and grabbing Remus' wrist.

"What?"

"Hold on a second." Sirius released his hold, waited a moment to make sure Remus would stay put, and then darted over to his own bed. It took him only a few moments for him to retrieve something; once he did, he drew the curtains closed around his bed, scrambled back over, and handed Remus a large bar of chocolate. "Eat."

"Sirius, I-"

"Eat it," Sirius repeated.

"Where did you get this from?"

A guilty smile flickered over Sirius' face. "Hogsmeade."

Remus went to nod in acceptance, but was wary of the guilty look. "Wait… we haven't been on a trip to Hogsmeade yet this year," he said slowly.

Sirius nodded mischievously. "I know."

"… You didn't skip classes and go there yourself, did you," Remus warned.

Sirius plastered a look of utter horror across his face. "Skip classes? Me? Never! What an outrageous accusation of you to make, Moony…" He grinned at Remus, who was clearly not impressed. "Oh, lighten up, Remus. It was only one lesson: and, you get chocolate!"

Remus hesitated. Finally, he took the chocolate, too tired to argue. "Thanks, Sirius," he said, as he ripped open the wrapper and broke off a piece, and gulped it down. Was he really that hungry? It must have escaped his notice. He broke off another piece, and offered it to Sirius. "Here…"

"Oh no," Sirius declined, waving a dismissive hand. "It's all for you." He beamed at Remus.

"Okay; well, goodnight, Sirius," Remus bid, a wave of peace and relief at being able to finally escape to his bed and sleep. He put the chocolate down at his desk, and closed the curtains around his bed. No sooner had he unbuttoned his shirt and gone to pull it off, however, were the curtains drawn open again.

"SIRIUS!"

"Calm down, Moony," Sirius said with a roll of his eyes. Remus hastily attempted to pull his shirt back to a reasonable state; the attire was forgotten as he watched Sirius snap the curtains shut again, and sit down on his bed.

"Sirius. No."

"Sirius; yes," he countered, lying across the bed.

Remus groaned. "Sirius, I just want to get some sleep."

"I know you do. And I'm going to be here with you in case you need me."

Remus went to pinch the bridge of his nose; luckily he remembered the injury across it and stopped himself just in time. "Sirius, you are literally a bed away from me."

"Us Marauders are responsible for each other," Sirius pointed out. "There's only me here to look after you. You've had a rough couple of nights – as, obviously, you do every month – and you deserve a good night's rest. So I'm not moving."

"Fine," Remus sighed. "Fine; okay, you win." And without even bothering to change out of his clothes, he sat down onto his bed and looked over to a triumphant Sirius. "Only this once," he added. Sirius nodded vigorously, but there was a gleam in his eyes which Remus knew meant that Sirius wasn't going to acknowledge the warning whatsoever.

Remus pulled the covers over himself, and looked expectantly to Sirius, on the other side of the bed. "And where are you going to sleep, then?"

Sirius winked – and an eye blink later, Remus was looking over towards a shaggy black dog, whose tongue hung out from his mouth and eyes were agleam. He bounded over to Remus, snuggled on top of the covers beside him, and tapped his nose against the palm of Remus' outstretched hand.

"Fair enough," Remus shrugged, and rested his head against the pillow.

Two successive licks to the face later, and Remus was sat up again. "You know that's completely gross, right," Remus frowned over to the dog, but he couldn't restrain his grin. The dog gave a soft bark in reply.

Remus settled back down; he reached over and patted the dog's head, running his head through the sleek fur. "Goodnight, Sirius."

 **...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...** *****...***...***...***...**

 _The wicked gleam of the full moon blinded him; ate away at his skin. He yelped in pain, tried to run… away from the light, as far as he could…_

 _Sweat trickled down his face; his muscles yelled at him to slow down, but he ignored it, ignored the screams and ran on._

 _His bones started to crack and splinter as they lengthened; the cuts over his skin opened up and he shouted in agony. He couldn't escape, he couldn't run. He was trapped._

 _Every inch of his body shook, the hair on his head withdrawing back into his skull, and thickening as though needles were pushing through his skin everywhere else… he just wanted it to all stop, to be over with. He wanted to curl up and whimper in the dark, hide away – but the scent of blood ran through his nostrils, and the overwhelming desire to kill began to take over…_

Remus snapped open his eyes, to be met with darkness. Silence, however, there was a lack of; his blood rushed through his ears and he gasped for air as though he'd been running for his life. His whole body was trembling, and tears were running down his face. He felt trapped, despite having woken from the nightmare: he tried to move, but found he was pinned down.

Something wet slobbered across his face; Remus grimaced. He lifted a hand out from under the covers, and slowly reached out, blind, to find the cause – and his hands met soft fur.

Remus released a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. Sirius (in dog form) was stood over him, licking away the tears streaming down Remus' face. Remus pulled out his other hand and reached out for the other side of the dog, and curled his fingers within the silky fur whilst he regained a steady rate of breathing, and gave himself time to calm down. The dog's nose rubbed reassuringly at Remus' outstretched hand, and tapped gently at Remus' own nose. Remus smiled.

The glossy fur disappeared; Sirius was now holding himself up on all fours above Remus. He blinked for a moment, the grinned down at Remus.

"Better?" he whispered.

Remus nodded.

The pair fell silent: from beyond the curtain, they could hear two other steady snores coming from their respectable beds. Peter and James had gotten back.

Remus frowned – not only because Sirius was suddenly rolling off from where he had been, but also because a thought occurred to him. "Where were the others earlier? _Sirius_ ," he hissed, as Sirius had just been attempting to get under the covers.

"Budge up a bit, will you," Sirius muttered, smirking. Remus relented and, once they were both settled, he looked over to Sirius expectantly. "Well, Wormtail was in an extra Transfiguration Class," Sirius explained, subsequently drawing an invisible line across his neck and shuddering at the thought of having to attend extra classes.

"What about James?"

"Oh, Prongs was stuck in detention." Remus glared over at Sirius, who shrugged. "I didn't have anything to do with it – I was in Hogsmeade, remember? It was something to do with Snivellus…"

"Alright, alright; I'll talk to James about it tomorrow," Remus sighed. A sudden pang of guilt twisted inside him, and so he added, "Sorry for waking you up."

"Don't worry about it, Moony," Sirius grinned. "That's why I'm here."

"To get woken up by me every couple of hours and get no sleep," Remus remarked, brow raised.

"No, you idiot," Sirius said, poking him. "To look after you."

Remus gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes; Sirius snorted.

"Shhh: we'll wake up the others," Remus laughed, trying to keep his voice at a whisper.

"You started it."

"Go to sleep, Sirius."

"Fine, _Sir_ ," Sirius tutted, a broad grin on his face.

Remus kicked him.

There was a muffled whine, followed by subsided giggles. Once Remus managed to stop laughing, he edged closer to Sirius, to whisper, "Thank you, Padfoot." Despite having earlier been disgruntled by Sirius' suggestion at him staying with Remus for the night, Remus found that it had been exactly what he needed.

Sirius beamed. "Don't worry about it, Moony." He ruffled Remus' hair.

Remus laid back down, closed his eyes and readied himself once more for sleep.

"Licking you wouldn't be too weird if I've already licked you as a dog, would it," Sirius pondered aloud.

"Don't. You. Dare."

"I'll take that as a maybe," Sirius mumbled, curling up where he too was under the covers.

"Goodnight, Sirius."

"'Night, Remus."

 **...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...***...** *****...***...***...***...**

"Don't bother trying to wake Sirius up yet, Wormtail."

"You're right, Prongs. I'll probably just get hit in the face."

"We'll get Remus to wake him up later: he's usually the only one who can get Sirius up, after all."

"Remus hasn't got up, either."

"…Now that _is_ strange."

Remus curled up tighter where he lay under the covers, his eyes still tightly closed to shut out the light of the morning. Mild surprise drifted through his dazed mind at how well he'd managed to sleep that night.

He yawned, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand and brushing away the curls of his sandy hair where it was stuck to the side of his face. No matter, he thought sleepily, I'll sort it out later…

"Remus?"

"Moony?"

Remus attempted a reply; it came out as more of a grunt. Movement stirred beside him, which he dimly registered as not being anything to be concerned over, before he snuggled deeper under the covers.

"REMUS – Whoa!"

The curtains screeched open; Remus winced as light battled against his eyelids. With a groan, he sat up, blinking over towards James and Peter. Their expressions struck him as mildly odd; both had their jaws hung open, and their eyes were wide.

"Wh-Wh-what is it," Remus yawned again. He blinked blearily, swinging his gaze slowly around as he grew accustomed to the shine of the morning sun. At the end of the bed, lying in a heap, was a shirt. Remus stared over at it, uncomprehending, then glanced down to his own chest, where his shirt was on (albeit still unbuttoned). Remus looked back over towards the forlorn shirt. If it wasn't his, then…?

Movement stirred again to his side: Remus glanced over and noted it, turning back to the shirt in question – when it clicked: he backtracked so quickly he got a crick in his neck.

Sirius was lying next to him, his dark hair fanned out across his face and the pillow. He was growling (much to Remus' amusement) at the intruding beams of light. The bed cover slipped slightly as Sirius buried his head deeper into the pillow, but it was already clear that his top half was bare.

"Well… this is, unexpected," James said finally, having regained his voice. Peter squeaked in agreement.

Had Sirius been shirtless? Remus racked his brains, failing to find an answer. He'd definitely been wearing full attire when Remus had first walked into the dormitory the previous evening. Perhaps, after having been in animagus form, he'd taken it off… sometime after Remus himself had fallen asleep, maybe? Were he more alert and awake, Remus may have had a more vivid reaction to the whole thing; as it was, he just shrugged and glanced back tiredly towards James and Peter.

"I mean – I have no problem with it, don't get me wrong," James continued with a grin. "But I don't think I've ever considered… well, actually, no: _that's_ a lie…"

Despite being unfocused by sleep, Remus sensed his cheeks flush - though as to why, his slow-working brain couldn't work out.

"Tell him to shut up, will you, Moony," Sirius mumbled, before rolling over and falling silent.

Remus went to speak, but found no words came to mind. He cleared his throat, and tried again. "Erm… I'll explain later," he told Peter and James.

James smirked. "No explanations are needed, Moony, really." He winked and closed the curtains back up.

Remus rolled his eyes. He was going to hit James. Or Sirius. Or both of them. Another yawn stifled his thoughts. Maybe later, he reconsidered, slipping back under the covers.

"Sirius," he whispered, poking his friend.

There was a deep sigh, and several moments of silence before Remus got a reply. "What?"

"Shirt. _Why_?"

"Took off," Sirius mumbled, his sentences garbled, what with him being half asleep and with his face squashed against the pillow. "Too hot earlier. Go back sleep, Moon."

Remus sighed, shaking his head fondly, before closing his eyes and doing just that.


End file.
